"Your daughters miss you. They were crying last night. You have a life. We have a life." -Theresa
"This was always part of it." -Lights

This final version of the pilot, melding together pieces of the original version by Justin Zackham and material written by Leight (as he explains in the interview), has a lot of ground to cover in its 44 or so minutes. It has to give us at least a glimpse of Lights as the champ so we understand why he quit and how different his life is. It has to give us a sense of how big his problems are, and how quickly they're spiraling out of control. It has to give you a sense of Lights' relationship with wife Theresa, brother Johnny, his dad, and his three daughters. It has to show the depths to which Lights has sunk when he plays collection agent for the shadowy Hal Brennan, and it has to leave room for Lights to get into a fight or two to demonstrate that he still has a taste for hitting people.

And, Frankenstein'ed or not, the pilot does a very good job of squeezing all of that in, and making it interesting.

It helps enormously, of course, to have a lead performance like the one Holt McCallany provides as Lights. He's really, really strong here - not just having the obvious physique to be plausible as an ex-champ, but just in the way he carries himself, how he relates to the other actors, and how he's on-screen for virtually every minute of the pilot and stays charismatic throughout.

The sequence that sold me on the show was Lights' trip to collect from the dentist, and how he's absolutely confident and unashamed to be there, eating their food, and then demanding 500 grand from the guy. And I loved his reaction to the dentist pulling the bat on him: yes, he knows he can kick his ass 17 different ways, but he seems genuinely pleased for the guy that he didn't just roll over. It's a surprisingly ingratiating moment in the middle of a scene where our hero is preparing to beat up a suburban dentist to collect a debt.

And for that matter, I really liked how we then jump away from the dentist's home, and from Lights taking Katie out for ice cream, and Lights being taunted by the stockbroker, until all three sequences are cut together, so that we can see Lights being so gentle and paternal with his daughter at the same time he's being calculated but cruel with the dentist and an absolute savage with the stockbroker. Our man has many faces, even if they all come attached to the same hulking body.

An excellent start at introducing these characters and the problems they're facing, I thought, especially considering how jury-rigged some of it was. Just that shot of Lights in the ring at the end of the episode - so happy and peaceful and carefree - said so much about where he was, where he is, and where this is all likely going.

Some other thoughts:

• The first time I noticed any music at all was when Lights was bringing Katie home from ice cream and called Johnny to ask about the Brennan job, and though I forgot to ask Leight about it during our interview, I e-mailed him later to ask, and he explained that "Lights Out" has music rules very similar to what David Simon used on "The Wire." No score, very little music in general, and when music is used, it has to have some kind of practical source within the scene, like from Lights' car radio.

• I'm not positive that the dentist lives in the same house where Johnny Sack lived on "The Sopranos," because there are a lot of McMansions in the tri-state area with that look, but boy did it give me flashbacks.

• "Pugilistic dementia." That does not sound good, does it?

• I also like the ambiguity about exactly why Lights lost the Reynolds fight, whether he was robbed, etc. The flashbacks to the fight combined with what the TV interviewer says suggests that Lights' dad gave him bad advice about running away rather than finishing Reynolds when he had the chance, but we don't quite know.

• Reg E. Cathey (Norman from "The Wire") only turns up briefly at the end as Reynolds' manager, Barry K. Word, but I think you're going to enjoy what he gets to do in future episodes. And that's all I'll say about that.

Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com

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That was fantastic. Holt has always been "that guy who overacts the 'His name is Robert Paulson' scene from Fight Club"- but he was pretty convincing as a boxer. His speech to his oldest about what a lie does made him look like a man who really feels the weight on his shoulders- and I'm pumped to see where that dichotomy takes the show.

That scene when he talked about lying to his daughter and then turned around and lied right to her face about his hand instantly sold me on the rest of the show. Just a brilliant scene all the way around and a great synopsis of what this show is going to be.

Really promising pilot. McCallany is a fantastic lead and the show overall evokes a Sopranos-lite feel for me. The charismatic larger-than-life character in the middle of middle-upper class society, with themes of family struggles and flashes of violence.

I was licking my chops as soon as I saw Clark Johnson had directed the episode, and he didn't disappoint. Lights Out feels like it'll be a good show - but whether Lights Out becomes a great show will really be driven by the writing. I felt like Lights was a little too perfect with the kids (the speeches to youngest and oldest daughters felt a little too good), and the idea of such a public figure collecting 500k so easily without worrying about a lawsuit from the beating got wrapped up so easily (whereas in the Sopranos, nothing felt easy). Tons of promise though, and definitely worth giving a chance as it grows beyond the pilot.

I can see a lot of people being turned off by the marketing, which has been ubiquitous but I'm not sure that boxing really resonates as a sport anymore; so I doubt a lot of women are going to want to watch the show based on the marketing, and young males have grown towards MMA (in part because it seems the sport is much, much less corrupt, at least in terms of the competition), so a show ostensibly about a boxer at its center may have a limited audience.

Enjoyed it a lot. Strong lead performance from Holt and this pilot peaked for me during the ice cream scene, with the flashes of brute violence scattered throughout it. Finally something of quality to watch on Tuesday night!

Pretty good pilot, but maybe not quite up to the standards that I hold most FX shows. But good enough to keep watching and see where it goes.

I just gotta say, Catherine McCormack who plays his wife fumbled all over the American accent. So much so that it became distracting. They might just want to throw in the towel, so to speak, and explain that the wife spent part of her childhood in England and that's why she pronounces some words funny.

At least the lead is American as apple pie. I just kept waiting for him to say, "His name is Robert Paulson"

I still think it's possible that Leight brought her in as American, but after getting a couple episodes in the can realised the accent wasn't working, so engineered the English backstory. Especially if it's a throwaway revelation, rather than something integral to the plot.

So glad to hear there's an explanation for the accent. But accent aside, I still found it hard to buy McCallany and McCormack as husband and wife, at least with what we know of them so far. There's an elegance about her that seems out of place in a show that, as others have mentioned, has definite shades of "The Sopranos." Maybe their chemistry will improve in future episodes and we'll learn something about her character that will make their relationship make more sense, but right now I just can't see them as a real couple.

Despite that, I enjoyed the pilot a lot and am glad to have found another show that my husband and I can watch together. Thanks for the recommendation, Alan -- it's so great to know that if you say something is good, it's almost guaranteed that I'll like it, too.

I was really looking forward to this and for the first half hour I was REALLY disappointed. I wasn't going to judge the series on it because I read about all the rewrites and problems but the acting in the first half was just not good whatsoever.

Then the 2nd half started and it felt like a completely different show. I'm not sure which parts were knew and redone but it got a lot better in a hurry.

The only weak spot I see being a problem is Schreiber. I'm just not sure I like the way he's playing his character.

Interesting comments. I had no emotional reaction to these characters at all. Thought McCormack was the best, accent aside, but still was not sold on the whole family dynamic. Early on Lights seems to have given up entirely w his elder two daughters, then he suddenly waxes poetic to the eldest about how much he loves her. Just didn't buy it. Also didn't buy Lights as a bully. But I'll give episode two a chance.

The ratings for this debut were just as shitty as Terriers, only they at least put all the effort into hyping it [bombarding us, actually] that they alleged to have put into Terriers.I can't wait to see how they'll try to spin this when it gets yanked as well.

I found the pilot engrossing. I felt the three scenes woven in sold me. Holt did a great job. As Alan stated, he embodied the character. I look forward to future episodes. It was by no means perfect but good enough to keep watching.I thought the contrast between how "Lights" treated his wife and daughters was nicely done. I could feel the weight of the world he is carrying.

Very interesting pilot. Great lead actor. Really, what a fantastic job by Holt McCallany.

Loved the dentist scenes and when he simply stared down his daughters boyfiend for a while without saying a word until he said, "Do we understand each other?" That was fantastic. What a great icy stare.